The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is making a dramatic play to attract voters back to the ALP, promising to give party members a direct say in choosing the leader. Supporters of party reform say it's the most radical change in Labor's 120 year history, and is a clear sign that the ALP is modernising. It also significantly reduces the chance of history repeating itself and seeing a sitting Labor prime minister again being rolled by the Caucus.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is making a dramatic play to attract voters back to the ALP (Australian Labor Party), promising to give party members a direct say in choosing the leader.

Supporters of party reform say it's the most radical change in Labor's 120 year history, and is a clear sign that the ALP is modernising.

It also significantly reduces the chance of history repeating itself and caucus alone ousting a sitting prime minister.

The latest opinion poll shows his approach is working. Today's Newspoll has Labor and the Coalition even on 50 per cent each once preferences are distributed.

From Canberra, here's Naomi Woodley.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Kevin Rudd says the ALP's rank and file members and the parliamentary caucus should have an equal say when it comes to choosing the leader. Ballots would take up to 30 days, and more than 75 per cent of caucus would be required to force a ballot.

KEVIN RUDD: The mechanisms outlined in the proposed rule change prevent anyone from just wandering in one day or one night and saying "OK sunshine, it's over".

NAOMI WOODLEY: It borrows more than a little from the playbook of the former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, and his attempts to clean up the ALP when he was in power.

He told AM from New York that Mr Rudd's plans are bold, clever, and overdue.

PETER BEATTIE: The strength of this system is that because it's so broadly based, it basically undermines the factions and it undermines the little power groups, because you have to talk to the whole membership of the party.

This is about as anti-factional as you can get.

NAOMI WOODLEY: How does he avoid the perception that this simply looks like revenge, or that he wants to avoid what happened to him in his first term ever happening again?

PETER BEATTIE: Look, I think empowering people and giving a broad say to Labor Party members from one end of Australia to the other is about empowering people.

I don't think this could be seen as a revenge in any manner, shape or form.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Kevin Rudd's plan does answer a call from a group within the ALP known as Labor Renewal. It took a campaign to the last national conference but with little success.

It's co-ordinator is the Mayor of Leichhardt in Sydney's inner west, Darcy Byrne.

DARCY BYRNE: This is the most radical democratic reform in the history of the Australian Labor Party. There will need to be further reforms, but opening our party up to the people and giving hundreds of thousands of people a role in determining who our leader is is an important and visionary move, and the Prime Minister should be applauded.

The last national conference was an incredible disappointment. All of the modest, sensible, but important reforms put forward by Bob Carr, John Faulkner, and Steve Bracks were defeated, and it's time for everybody in the Labor Party to get on board with the Prime Minister's vision for bringing our party into the future and giving our supporters a real say.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Kevin Rudd is balancing the need to re-energise the party's membership with the risk of the Government looking like it's solely focused on internal matters.

The Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wants attention on the latter.

TONY ABBOTT: The first three years of this Government were so bad they sacked the prime minister. The second three years of this Government were so bad, they sacked the prime minister.

Now they want another three years, and what's more, the bloke who's there now wants to change the rules so that he can't be sacked, no matter how bad he is.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Prime Minister's office couldn't provide an estimate of the cost of holding a special caucus meeting needed to approve the changes. But a spokeswoman says as it's a meeting of the parliamentary wing of the party, the cost will be borne by parliament, and therefore taxpayers, rather than the ALP.